Skyline to highlight new DataMiner features

Skyline will use ANGA COM to showcase new features of its DataMiner 9.5 release.

According to Skyline, this release includes important innovations and new network management paradigms, enabling operators to manage their operations more easily and efficiently.

Skyline will highlight cable HFC, DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS DAA upgrades.

To achieve higher broadband speeds, many cable operators are upgrading their infrastructure to DOCSIS 3.1, either using existing HFC plant, or completely ugradeing HFC and home networks to support higher frequency bands up to 1.2GHz, while at the same time deploying deep digital fibre.

The technology transformation to higher broadband speeds frequently also entails an operational transformation. According to Skyline, DataMiner allows the transformation to be implemented efficiently and at significantly reduced risk, providing end-to-end monitoring of the entire infrastructure, across any device, regardless of vendors and protocols, and allowing operators to track multiple KPIs and KQIs.

Skyline will also highlight support for virtualisation. With broadcasters and service providers in the early stages of launching cloud-based media playout and distribution services, the monitoring and control planes for media across vendors remain a big source of concern. Unlike scalable IT-style services such as web servers, storage nodes or load balancers, says Skyline, the management and orchestration of permanent and semi-permanent media services such as linear OTT services requires special attention in the data centre.

According to Skline, this requires a marriage between devops and traditional media workflows. While the majority of technology companies are launching proprietary controllers that hide the data centre scaling and scheduling complexities from media operators, these often rely on a pre-defined and pre-tested stack hierarchy in the data centre, and with that, a very specific set of media tools, devops tools, scripts, logfiles, dashboards, and so on.

According to Skyline, DataMiner offers end-to-end service monitoring and control on the one hand, and insight in the data center stack on the other hand.

Skyline will also showcase QoE monitoring capabilities.

The DataMiner analytics engine relates end-user QoE to specific metrics in the network itself, like network location, network status and capacity utilization, service status at the origin server, and more. These analytics provide operators with insight as to root causes and fault locations in case of service degradation, according to Skyline.

Secondly, DataMiner provides visibility and control across the network infrastructure and all services running on it, according to the company.

Skyline will be exhibiting in hall 7, stand G66